Team RGNT
by BoNTMeister
Summary: Among the talented young first-years beginning their life at Beacon Academy, four students are about to begin a journey of their own. A familiar story told from four very different perspectives. Original Characters with frequent appearances from Team RWBY and JNPR. Humor, Romance, Action and Drama with everything in-between. Rated T for violence and darker themes. Weekly Updates.
1. Acceptance - Ranno Solden

"One more time. That's all I need. Just one more...

"GAH!"

After having thrown my hands up in frustration, they quickly returned to the controller and gripped it tightly. I was determined to do it this time. This would be the last time.

Clearly it _was_ the last time, because the intense concentration was finally starting to take its toll. After fourteen failed attempts, this game had beaten me. My head was aching and I needed a break. After gently setting the controller to the side, I laid down on the floor, squeezing all the air out of my lungs as my back touched the carpet. If the headache was any indication, playing this close to the vidscreen wasn't a good idea.

"That's why they invented chairs, I think…"

Mumbling to myself wasn't a good habit, but I did it anyway. It was difficult to keep me quiet, after all. After I laid onto my back, it became apparent just how sore it was after sitting hunched over for an hour or so. And my legs were numb, the tingling feeling setting in as the blood started to circulate. Not a great time to have a headache.

With a tired groan, I rolled over to snatch up my scroll with both hands and lazily pulled it apart to reveal the entire thin panel. No new messages. I could've sworn the little mail icon was taunting me. _She should've sent something by now_! Clearly we weren't getting along as well as I thought.

"Ah...

"Well… Onto the next pretty face, I guess."

With that, I folded the scroll and placed it on the floor and rolled onto my back again shortly afterwards. I raised my hands to my head, clenching my fingers and tugged on my hair before rubbing my eyes and nose. This headache wasn't going away.

"Ranno! ... Hey! What're you doin' on the floor?"

I shot up to see where the voice was coming from, my eyes darted around before they settled on the figure in the corridor. It was my residence mate, Connor.

Wearing nothing but a towel around his waist. From the stupid grin on plastered on his face, he'd clearly forgotten about how many times I'd told him to be fully clothed before he went on strolls around the residence. Clearly, he needed to be reminded one more time.

"Connor, your room is **right** next to the showers. Get changed **before** you walk out here, man! Nobody wants to see that!"

I waved a hand dismissively at him in an attempt to shoo him back to his room.

"Heheh... Not you, maybe. But that one girl in my sparring group was checking me out the whole of last semester. You should've seen the way she stared!"

After his little gloat, he ran a hand through his wet hair and padded towards the kitchen with his bare feet.

"Speaking of last semester-" He began to mention off-handedly as he walked over to the refrigerator and pulled out a can. After he popped it open with a loud hiss and padded over on bare feet to one of the chairs. He paused for a moment with a blank look on his face before he flopped back onto it.

"What're your plans for next year? We don't have long before we have to pack up our stuff and get out."

I didn't answer him. After I stood up, I strolled into the kitchen and brought up a hand to wearily pull the cabinet door open. My hand instinctively found the headache pills. Clearly, I did this too often.

At that moment, I heard my scroll vibrate on the carpet. It was soon followed by the usual beeping of the message tone. After I filled a glass with water and gulped down the pills, I left the glass on the counter and sauntered over to the living room. After snatching up my scroll, I flopped back onto an armchair. Connor stared at the scroll in my hands, opening his mouth to speak.

"Whatsit say?"

I glanced over at Connor for a moment before I pulled the scroll apart once more. I smirked at him before I looked to the screen in front of me. It seems she had replied after all, today was my lucky day.

"Dunno yet… Let's see."

It was a reply to the application I had sent earlier in the year. My application to **Beacon**.

My finger moved forward to tap the icon but I hesitated for a moment. A sharp pang of anxiety shot through my chest, hard and cold like the edge of a knife.

_What if I didn't get accepted?_

"You got a reply from that girl, eh? Lucky bastard. I should've asked that sparring girl if she was interested long-"

"No."

There was a hint of apprehension in my voice and I could hear it. He could too, most likely.

"It's from Beacon Academy."

"You applied to _Beacon_?!"

He sat up as he spat the last word out. Thankfully, he wasn't drinking at the time. I'd see that he scrubbed the carpet later if he was. "That's the top academy in Vale! You've sure got high hopes. Especially after your performances at practice! I'm sure your reports had some _shining_ testimonies to those pranks you pulled in class."

I shrugged and returned to staring at the mail icon as I spoke. "It was worth a shot. My scores weren't too bad and those ideas were pure _genius_**. **Plus, my mother and brother are there. I had to try, at least."

He sighed, sinking back into his seat and taking another loud sip of his drink, quickly swallowing before speaking again.

"Ahh… I forgot that your mom was a professor there. I'd bet that helps your chances a bit." He looked around before narrowing his eyes at me. "Y'know, it was really lucky of us to get this residence. Too lucky. It's the smallest of 'em all and it's also the most well-equipped. We even have our own little kitchen and living room! It's been a great senior year at Signal… And I'm glad you were placed in our dorm!"

"... Of course you are." I furrowed my brow, still staring at my scroll. I knew what he was implying. Too often, people just assumed that I'd gotten special treatment because of my father's company, Helios. What they didn't realise is that the company had failed and was sold earlier this year. I didn't know why we landed up in this dormitory. Perhaps it _was_ more than just luck.

"Sooo... What does it say, Rann?" Connor stared at me inquisitively from the other side of the room, still half-naked and reclining on the couch."

"I don't know! I haven't opened it yet. And you're making the couch damp! Go get changed, you idiot!" My voice nearly cracked as I yelled at Connor and sure enough, raising my voice recklessly provoked the dormant beast in my pain-wracked head. It felt like an Ursa was rampaging inside my skull.

As usual, my voice was deep and _incredibly_ masculine as I yelled at him. Some of the other guys my age would have a problem with their squeaky voices at times, but not me. Not at all. Nope. Definitely not the case. My soon-to-be-eighteen-year-old self didn't have that problem.

"Fine, fine…" He propped himself up and padded off down the corridor before taking a sharp turn into his room. The other guys in the residence left earlier this morning, so I didn't have to worry about any other intruders. My hand lifted up, my finger extended. My stomach tensed anxiously as my fingertip tapped on the icon . The mail opened, the screen was soon filled with a wall of text and an icon of my mother alongside another attached document. _Looks like she attached a recorded message for me, though what is the other attached document_?

My eyes focused on the top line, reading it. My chest felt like it was going to burst in excitement.

_Congratulations, Mister Solden._

_You have been accepted into Beacon Academy._

_Please see the attached document for…_

I raised both arms in triumph and the thought of bothering to read the rest of the acceptance letter didn't even cross my mind. After I was painfully reminded of my headache, I reached down to pick my scroll up and tapped on the icon of my mother's face, opening the recorded voice message and clutching my throbbing skull as I listened.

"Ranno! Congratulations on your acceptance into Beacon! I'm sure your father would have been just as proud as I am. It'll be great to have the whole family at Beacon and together again. Have I mentioned before that your father and I met while we were training at Beacon?"

It was always great to hear my mother's voice. She spoke so fondly of my father at times, ending her sentence with an embarrassed little giggle. Sometimes I forgot how young she seemed for her age. I'm also glad I've never told her that. As a huntress, she had more than a few ways of having my head separated from my body. Which strangely enough, didn't seem like such a bad idea.

"Anyhoo... The reason I sent this to you pre-recorded instead of calling you directly is because Athrin wanted to congratulate you as well! He's away on assignment at the moment and unable to call from there. But he recorded a message for you before he left and he should be returning at the start of the next school year. I've arranged with Signal Academy to let you stay in the residence for a little while longer while I find some other accommodation for you, I know you don't want to be there by yourself until your year at Beacon starts. I'll call you up tomorrow to tell you what I've found. Love you! Byeee!"

The audio stopped abruptly but the progress bar still had several seconds left on it. I stared at it for a while longer before the audio suddenly returned with a crisp, masculine voice. It was my brother.

"Ranno... Good job on getting in. Don't disappoint."

_That_ was all he had to say?! He may have been three years ahead of me and finished his huntsman training, but he could've been a little more enthusiastic for me. Getting into Beacon was no small task. Not for him, maybe. But for someone like me, it's definitely a big thing. Again, the excitement caused my headache to react violently. It felt like my skull was going to split.

"Rann! Don't try to use the shower! No hot water left!" I heard Connor yell out from his room before he stuck his head out his door and smiled sheepishly at me.

"Sorry, Ranny. You'll have to wait a few hours."

Great. After last year's events, I was already a year late to Beacon. The last thing left to do was wait out the vacation. _The long, lonely vacation_.

Beacon couldn't come soon enough.

* * *

**Author's Notes:**

**Disclaimer: RWBY does not belong to me. If you'd like to find out who the original creators of the series are, look up Monty Oum and Rooster Teeth Productions.**

So, here it is! My first chapter to my first fanfiction. I know many people aren't terribly fond of Original Characters, but there's a reasoning behind it. Out of respect to the writers of RWBY and the characters they've created, I've decided to avoid writing something that revolved around them as I'd have to put words in their mouths and split-off from the canon route. So I thought up my own team and made up my mind to tell their story. The inspiration behind writing something like this is attempting to describe what it would be like to be a student at Beacon. The series has shorter episodes, so they don't have much time to describe things in detail. So this'll be a sort-of parallel story-line to the one in the series which focuses on different things. You may also notice a few references to things in this fanfic, I'll do my best to make them as tasteful as possible.

Why is this at the bottom, you ask? Well, I've decided I'm going to put these at the bottom of each chapter, so people can get right to the reading and save my ramblings for later.

Thank you for reading through this short teaser chapter. I know it doesn't cover much but I'm hoping to write more for each week. If you've noticed any inconsistencies, I'm sincerely sorry for that. Since the RWBY series was written and designed in America, it would naturally follow a more American way of doing things. Unfortunately, this means that I have to translate things from the metric system to the imperial and it also means that I don't have a very good understanding of how the school year works there. I'm committed to making this fanfiction as accurate as possible, but please bear with me on this.

As for the team name, RGNT is spoken out-loud as Argent.

A very special thanks to my friend FenrisTheGrey for editing all of this and providing advice/suggestions. You've been a massive help to this story and I'm proud to have such intelligent, creative friends.

And that's it for the first chapter! I'll be releasing a new chapter on a Thursday each week.


	2. Sunset - Ranno Solden

"Toothbrush? Check. Vests? Check. Clothes for tomorrow morning? Check."

It was the evening before my life at Beacon started and the vacation had dragged on long enough. I was hopelessly excited. My body was brimming with energy and all I could focus on was Beacon. My mother sent me a message about the airship schedule and the times that they were leaving. It also reminded me to pack accordingly and I got started on that immediately. I looked out the bathroom's window for a moment before looking back to my scroll's checklist. The sun hadn't even gone down yet.

"My scroll's charger. Check."

Of course, since the apartment I'd was lived in didn't belong to me, I had to move everything out before I left. It didn't change the fact that I had to sort everything into two bags. A small backpack for everything I needed on the airship and everything else into a large suitcase, which would go into its hold.

"Headphones? Check. Coat? Check."

I paused, looking up from my scroll and into the mirror ahead of me.

"Handsome? Check!"

I studied myself in the mirror for a while just to be sure that I was presentable. Green eyes. They were quite dark, but they were clearly from my mother's side. I was proud of them, all the same. My short hair was a darker shade of blonde, inherited from my father's side. All of it came together pretty well. I had just graduated from a combat school after all. I wasn't too muscular, but my frame was nothing to be ashamed of. Or that's what I told myself, at least.

My moment in the mirror was rudely interrupted by a growl from my stomach. Clearly it didn't appreciate my appearance as much as I did, however it was a good point that was made. It was time to score some dinner. With my stomach and I in agreement, I wandered into the small kitchen to look for food. Nothing. It seems that if I had a quick meal in mind, I was out of luck.

I walked past the piles of clothing on the bed and looked for something to put over the black shirt I was wearing. After some time, I finally found what I was looking for. It was my Signal Academy hoodie. It was meant to be a graduation gift from the Academy and was supposedly tailor-made to each student. However, at the time, I couldn't decide on a color so the one given to me was black with a deep crimson on the arms, back and hood. It also a bit too small for me but I was proud of it and it was warm enough to wear for a short trip to the nearby store. _  
_

_Right. Now where did I-_

I looked down at the scroll still in my hands, wondering if I had somehow lost my mind when I wasn't looking.

_Ah._

On my way to the door, I pulled my scroll apart and opened a few security applications. A few taps of the screen and a short loading bar later, the door was unlocked and I was headed down a flight of stairs and onto the street below. I felt a pang of regret as I looked back to the main door. I had to climb those stairs again when I got back. Stairs were my mortal enemy. Whoever continued to use stairs in the design of buildings definitely enjoyed tormenting people for no good reason. Elevators were the way of the future. With a defeated sigh and a shrug, I headed down the street and towards the store. Hopefully it would still be open by the time I got there.

As I walked, I looked up to the sky. The sun was just settling into a fiery blaze, the upper half just peeking on the horizon. I instinctively put my hands in my pockets, feeling something solid in one of them. I pulled out a pair of tiny earphones that I must've left in there a long time ago. What a pleasant surprise. I checked my scroll again, flicking through lists of music. I wasn't quite sure what I was looking for, but I knew I would recognize it when I saw it. My earphones came to life as I turned the next corner, walking past the now-abandoned road-works site. Seems like they were using an old shipping container as a little guard booth, something to scare the kids away from interfering with it. Of course, at this time of the evening, the makeshift booth and the rest of the street were empty. It was eerie, to say the least. Not a soul in sight.

As I walked past the site, I saw something move in the corner of my eye. Not too far in the distance, I saw a shuffling figure with shaggy hair moving around a corner. He stopped when he heard me, turning to look at me with a bearded face. I felt a pang of regret as I looked at him. Not every town or village was under the protection of huntsman or huntresses. People who've lost their homes and livelihoods to the Grimm were all too common these days. There were always more people in need of protection. The Academy students knew and understood this. It was what we wanted to do one day, after all.

With my music blaring in my ears, I glanced over to the haggard figure once again. What I saw unnerved me. He had begun to move in my direction, quickly picking up his pace to a frightening speed. Although the light was fading, there was something unnatural about his bearded face. His dark eyes were full of malice and his nondescript brown clothing concealed everything below his neck. His predatory gaze was locked on my Signal Academy hoodie and my hand instinctively moved to my belt, gripping Durhn's hilt and freeing it. I clasped it tightly in my hand, instantly feeling somewhat safer.

_I shouldn't use the blade on him. No. I'll be fine without it._

What began as a slow shuffle had now picked up into a full sprint. He was charging towards me. His mouth hung open, a scream of unnatural fury bellowing out his chest and echoing throughout the empty street. I took the precious few seconds I had left to ready my thumb on Durhn's trigger and glance at my surroundings. The shipping crate was behind me. To my sides were the painted wooden barriers.

"Personally, I'm not very fond of hitting old men. I'd reconsider my next move if I were you!"

I called out to him in an attempt to stop this before it started but I figured it wouldn't be of much use. There was no hints of hesitation in his movements. He knew what he wanted. I shook my head and rolled my shoulders. My feet shifted into a more defensive stance and my eyes were locked on the attacker, ready to strike. He was closing in quickly. Couldn't be more than a few feet in front of me, now.

_C'mon. _

_Just a little bit closer… _

_And… _

_Now!_

I flicked the flexible trigger on Durhn's hilt and both sides of its staff form emerged almost instantly from either side of the hilt. In the same fluid motion, I hooked the bottom half of Durhn into the man's ankle, tripping him and sent him tumbling into the barriers. As he rolled, his clothing hooked on one of them and was torn to reveal his bare chest.

He was emaciated - his skin stretched tight over a bony rib cage complete with wiry arms that matched his frame. The most unnerving sight of all were the ink black lines that sprawled across his skinny form. The spindly patterns trailed up from his waist and spread out across his body like a disease. He seemed dazed for a brief moment before he dropped his knees to his animalistic attack stance, ready to charge. I prepared myself for it and held the staff point just above the ground in a defensive posture, ready to parry and counter attack.

"I can do this all day, old man!"

With another angry bellow, he lunged forward_._ Once again, I was almost _too_ prepared for him. I lifted the point up, ready to strike at his right shoulder. My weight shifted to my front foot to fully commit to the attack. With a powerful jab like this, it'll _definitely_ knock him off his feet.

_Perfect. I'll just bring Durhn up and s- _

I looked down in disbelief as the diseased man dodged and weaved under my swing. I'd missed. He sprung up underneath my guard and his fist collided with my ribs. I instinctively tried to absorb the damage by channeling aura to the area, but it was too little too late. My brain went numb. There was no fear. No pain. With the adrenalin soaked into my brain, everything seemed to move in slow motion. My eyes looked up from his fist and into his bloodshot gaze. The veins in his eyes were black as night.

This was no ordinary human.

My lofty, numb sensation lasted for what felt like minutes, but I knew it to be just a fraction of a second. As my mind came plummeting down to reality, I felt my ribs creak under the powerful blow. He followed through with his punch and with a sudden feeling of weightlessness, I realized that I had been flung into the shipping container. My back and head struck on metal, my vision shrouded in darkness as my limp body fell back down to the road. If I passed out here, I was dead. I fought it with every ounce of consciousness I had left.

Then the pain began to set in. It was a good sign, at least. I'd fought off the urge to pass out but if I didn't get up soon, it wouldn't matter much anyway. The air was knocked out of my lungs and I whimpered in pain as I attempted to take a breath. Despair was starting to set in. I didn't want to die like this. I feebly managed to draw some air into my suffocated lungs and my hand reached out and grabbed a fistful of loose stones and dirt on the road.

_Get up. If you're going to die, die on your feet._

I told myself this over and over as I weakly struggled to one knee and rose up. I clenched my staff in a white-knuckled grip, dropping down to my preferred defensive stance again. My blurred vision slowly began to focus on my shadowy attacker. He had his back to me and eerily stared up at the fractured moon in the sky. He turned to look at me slowly, showing no emotion in his animalistic gaze before his knees bent yet again. He planned to finish me off here. This was definitely no ordinary human. That punch was laced with aura. Nothing else punched that hard.

My ribs ached as I tenderly sucked in light breaths in an attempt to control my panic and focus my thoughts. I couldn't allow myself to get hit like that again. If I did, he'd punch a hole in my chest. I didn't want to seriously injure him but he'd clearly not given me much of a choice. Once again, my thumb found the switch on Durhn's hilt and nudged it. The staff point I kept in front of me churned to life. A few pieces of metal flicked out into position and provided a piercing edge while another few fanned out beside it, completing the cutting edge. With that, the pieces settled and locked into position, which formed a uniform blade at the end of the staff.

I raised the pointed tip of Durhn's now-glaive form slightly higher off the ground and rotated it in my hands until the slashing edge was facing upward. I wouldn't miss again. It was all or nothing and I knew it as my aura circulated around my body. I needed to protect from any damage as best I could. With another wretched howl, the diseased man lurched forward and charged with frightening speed. My weight shifted to my back foot.

With his standard tactic of a head-on rush, he was bound to run out of luck sooner or later. I managed a feeble grin as I thought to myself, my eyes still locked on my target.

_Definitely sooner_.

I withheld my attack until the last possible moment and as he attempted to bob and weave under my guard for the second time, I dodged aside while slashing at his chest. The blade connected with the flesh on his shoulder and sliced outwards. I poured what little energy I had into the force of the attack but I could feel that the wound inflicted wasn't very deep. It should slow him down, at least.

I dropped to one knee after my attack, struggling to keep my breathing under control and looked to Durhn's blade. A black liquid was smeared across the metal and coated the edge.

_Is that-_

… _His blood?_

With my energy drained, so was my confidence. He won. This was it. I twisted my body to look at my would-be executioner and almost expected him to be standing behind me. What I didn't expect to see was that he had run past me and collapsed from his light wound. Not just that, he was writhing in pain. Inhuman screams of panic and pain echoed in the empty street while I watched him clutch his wound in horror. Then, he lay eerily still.

The wound on his shoulder began to twitch before what appeared to be a flat bone erupted from it and drew out a long cry of anguish from him. He struggled to his feet and looked around the street in a blind panic. The wound had disappeared, replaced by a painful-looking bone plate emerging from him. The skin around the area began to turn as pitch black as the blood in his veins.

And with that, he fell down onto all fours and leapt onto the top of the container. His panicked breath echoed down the street as he fled.

_Not dying today, I guess._

I was relieved. I was exhausted. After I rolled onto my back and looked up at the fragmented moon, I began to lose track of the time that past as I lay there.

"… Easy." I breathily exclaimed and wearily lifted both fists to the night sky. Soon enough, they began to wobble as I struggled to keep them in the air and eventually dropped them to either side of my tired body. My legs burned with exhaustion. My lungs felt shriveled, housed by my aching ribs. And my stomach grumbled loudly. That wasn't an easy fight but maybe if it was said, it would make it seem like less of a problem. It also felt funny because was the complete opposite to the truth.

My lips curled into a feeble smile. I'd laugh if I thought I could. The silence was broken by rapid footsteps and an exasperated female voice directed at me.

"… Sir! Sir! Are you alright?"

I managed a tired groan, struggling to sit up and look at the woman clearly. She had auburn hair and looked to be in her forties. She was still dressed in her nightclothes and was in a panic over my situation. She must've seen the whole thing from her window above.

"Don't try to move! You could be hurt!"

I shook my head with a smile, raising a hand in an attempt to calm her down.

"Whatever he was, he's gone. I'm fine."

"But- … I saw him- … You hit the-" She fumbled with her words and pointed at the metal shipping container. "You're in pain! Where does it hurt?"

It suddenly occurred to me how ridiculous the situation was. I had just been beaten up by a savage homeless person and I could only think of one thing. With that revelation, I tilted my head back and a hearty laugh escaped from my aching chest. I shook my head while I flicked Durhn's trigger, the blade folded back into the staff which then collapsed back into the hilt. I looked up at the woman and beamed a smile at her.

"Right here." I patted my belly. As if on cue, my stomach growled as I sheepishly scratched the back of my head.

* * *

**A/N:**

Now this was originally a massive chapter but I've decided to split it into two, so I apologize if this chapter seems like it's all combat and no story. Thursday seems like a long wait for a chapter, so the next chapter will arrive on next week Tuesday instead. After that, I'll reconsider which day is better for releasing new chapters.

Seems that I've miscalculated the difference in time zones and my editor is probably fast asleep right now, so this chapter will be updated some time in the future to clear up any minor errors. I hope you enjoyed reading it as much as I enjoyed writing it!

The next chapter, Arrival, will arrive next week Tuesday. To Beacon Academy we go!


End file.
